Founder, Jay Dee Morgan (left), traveled to San Francisco to attend the Wim Hof (right) workshop on October 23rd, 2016.

The Wim Hof Innerfire workshop took place on a mild, cloudy day on Treasure Island in San Francisco. Roughly 200 people from all walks of life traveled to meet for the one day workshop. Ice baths, breathing, and a deep dive into what is known as the Wim Hof Method was the agenda for the event.

Let's take a step back and answer a few questions:

Who is Wim Hof?

Wim Hof, better known as the "Ice Man", is a Dutch man that can perform some rather "superhuman" feats.

Wim is internationally renowned for his countless ice endeavors that range from being up to his neck in a cylinder filled with ice cubes for over 90 minutes, swimming long distances under polar ice, running a marathon barefoot to climbing the Everest in nothing more than a pair of shorts. It gained him worldwide fame and his nickname: The Iceman. Wim has shown what the human body is capable of once you find the flow within your physical and mental state. Right now he especially sees his new challenge in passing on his method to others to give everyone the opportunity to reach out and do more than what they thought they were capable of. Through the right training and exercises, you can strengthen your inner nature and prevent disease.

Vice Media told Wim's story of his past, present and the future of what he hopes to accomplish. You can see the documentary HERE

Wim, from the beginning, has welcomed and encouraged scientific scrutiny. This is why we at Manna got interested in his claims in the first place. Radboud University (Netherlands) conducted extensive research on Wim's claim that he could influence his autonomic nervous system (immune system, breathing, most homeostatic functions) when it came to illness. The researchers injected the group (control and a group trained by Wim) with an endotoxin - similar to the flu - the control group got sick, whereas Wim's group, trained in the Wim Hof Method was able to fight off the endotoxin.

Why is Manna interested in Wim Hof's method?

Early on in the life of Manna, I [Jay Dee] became interested in meditation and began ramping up my training in rowing and fitness. I began being more mindful of my breath while training. I'd always heard about connection to your breath from years of Yoga - it never really sank in what that meant. Meditation was great and showing very good results, but I would get bored and fell asleep sometimes.

The breath was a way to meditate, be a little bit more active than just "ceasing to think". Finding that disconnect from my mind and thoughts was much more attainable - faster and easier. It is a very effective way to find that midpoint between consciousness and unconsciousness. The method also has great benefits to our physiological performance during exercise. We've been experimenting with the method for the past year and are very pleased with the results! We've implemented many of the main themes from WHM (breathing & mindfulness) into our classes and can't wait to share them with you at our studio classes, at your office space, or your next fitness and mindfulness event with us!

Why did Manna attend the workshop?

Simply put, we wanted to see the "Ice Man" in the flesh and see what he was all about. We are happy to report that he is every bit as charismatic as we have seen in the media covering him. We were able to network with some of the finest in the world. The Chicago Cubs had a representative from their strength and conditioning team. Tony Robbins had one of his representatives in attendance. Lawyers, doctors, researchers, biologists, physiologists, tech entrepreneurs - everyone present was seeking to find that 1% improvement in lifestyle, performance, and well-being. We got to gift Wim a Manna shirt - he was stoked!

"Hugging it out" after explaining Wim's influence on the Manna program.

I [Jay Dee] have become very passionate about mental health and how exercise and mindfulness can play a huge positive impact.

Mental illness runs in my family. Schizophrenia, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder - these are all things I've seen in my family and have even experienced some of it myself.

When I moved to NYC [from 2012-2014] I went through a tough time mentally, physically, financially, and emotionally.

Gilbert Chesterton said, "one sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak". In this valley was where I saw my proverbial peak.

Without knowing it, I was healing myself by getting back on the rowing machine. You see, once I moved and ran out of cash my motivation to workout withered away. I became sluggish - mentally and physically.

It negatively transcended my relationship to my then girlfriend, my energy towards others [I was trying to network a lot to find a job], and my relationship with myself.

Gratefully, through getting back in better shape, building confidence back up, and working my tail off, things turned out for the best and I was able to receive my "MBA in Life" as I like to put it.

To tie my personal anecdote and what we are doing at Manna to a recent study I read, researchers at Rutgers University have found that focused-attention meditation [this can look like the breath-work we do] in combination with aerobic activity [we achieve this with rowing and our strength and bodyweight training], and having a large element of effortful learning [we are all learning how to row :)] can "maximally increase the integration of networks involved with cognitive control and learning to those necessary for autonomic nervous system regulation."

Depression is living in the past, whereas anxiety is living in the future.

With these three elements i) focused mental presence, ii) physical activity, and iii) intent and effortful learning you can help stave off mental illness, be in great physical shape, look HAWT, create NEW neurons in the hippocampus, and regulate your autonomic nervous system.

THIS IS HUGE.

One of our crew, Breia, has been showing me some incredibly powerful breathing and focus techniques, I hope to share more with you all as I learn more and have Breia share.

Betsy and Jon, friends from our pals at Crossfit Beach Fitness, have both shared with me that they have rarely missed a day of physical exertion in their 50 or so trips around the sun.

And they are BOTH HAWT :)

Make these things a priority and your body and mind will thank you.

Here's a snippet from the study that I thought synthesized things nicely:

"Antidepressants are not the only depression-related therapies known to increase neurogenesis. Most notably, aerobic exercise can greatly increase the number of cells that are produced in the hippocampus. Animals given the opportunity to run on a daily basis can produce nearly twice as many new cells as sedentary controls.7, 8, 9 Importantly, however, these new neurons are not necessarily permanent. Even under ‘healthy’ conditions, many of these new cells can die within several weeks of being born, often before differentiating into mature neurons.10 Nevertheless, many of the newly born neurons can be rescued from death by new learning experiences and they may even be involved in learning itself.11, 12"

I believe the last element that this study out of Rutgers is missing is "community". A sense of belonging. In my 12 years of crew I've never felt like I wasn't with a family. I'm starting to feel that with our crew and can't wait to see us all grow together!